Punk! With all the hubbub over the recent show at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which focuses more on punk fashions, it’s easy to forget there was actually artwork on punk rock record releases. We’ve collected the 25 best here, to reinvigorate the spirit of imaging in this unmistakable form. We’ve left out some of the more arguably classic album covers of all time—The Velvet Underground and Nico and Beggar’s Banquet, among others—for the notion that they may not be true punk enough. Hopefully, this will act as an intermediary between the mosh pit and the Met.
The 25 Best Punk Album Covers of All Time
25. Iron Reagan - Fuck You
25. Fuck You
Artist: Iron Reagan
Year released: 2012
It speaks to the strength of this art form that something so iconic can still make such a statement all these years later. But instead of the classic image of Reagan perhaps with a bullethole in his head, Iron Reagan turned the lens back on the president to offer a simple critique of his world view.
24. Choking Victim - No Gods, No Managers
24. No Gods, No Managers
Artist: Choking Victim
Year released: 1999
The joke on Choking Victim's only album art is that the incredibly pagan and occult imagery has about as much to do with managers as does potato salad. That humor translated perfectly to the band's late-'90s blend of ska and hardcore, at once both blisteringly dark and self-aware.
23. Dayglo Abortions - Little Man In The Canoe
23. Little Man In The Canoe
Artist: Dayglo Abortions
Year released: 1995
Cheeky, sexy, and vaguely offensive, the cover for Little Man In The Canoe invokes imagination while also leaving nothing to the imagination.
22. Husker Du - Zen Arcade
22. Zen Arcade
Artist: Husker Du
Year released: 1984
Husker Du's magnum opus double-album Zen Arcadecame stamped with a beautiful hand-colored cover photo of silhouetted men in a junkyard. The alienation felt in this image, along with the setting, set the tone of the record's narrative of leaving home only to find the world outside just as, if not more, unbearable.
21. Propaghandi - How To Clean Everything
21. How To Clean Everything
Artist: Propaghandi
Year released: 1993
The punkers of the '90s figured out there was nothing wrong with a little sense of humor in the music. Propaghandi's classic How To Clean Everything translated the already-iconographic hard-edged X and notions of "cleansing" into something cheeky, while still bowing to a sense of history (a field they'd become more fascinated with as they grew more activist).
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20. Weekend Nachos - Unforgiveable
20. Unforgiveable
Artist: Weekend Nachos
Year released: 2000
When your band goofs off with a name like Weekend Nachos, maybe to brace the listener against this powerviolence crossover band, you may as well get virulent with your visuals. The cover of their album Unforgiveable did just that, reminding us of the fragility of youth and human life in an extremely graphic way.
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19. Reagan Youth - A Collection of Pop Classics
19. A Collection of Pop Classics
Artist: Reagan
Year released: 1993
Reagan Youth's pairing of Ku Klux Klan imagery with this album's title make for a particularly cutting remark, given the direct reference to Klan Grand Wizard and Louisiana state representative David Duke. As reflected in the music, this satire had to do with the band's contempt. Whether this album cover led any confused David Duke fans to purchase it remains to be seen.
18. Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
18. Double Nickels On The Dime
Artist: Minutement
Year released: 1984
Mike Watt's Minutemen crew came up with this album title in response to the Sammy Hagar song "I Can't Drive 55," deciding that driving fast wasn't necessarily an act of protest. It took photographer Dirk Vandenberg two days of driving with Watt in his Volkswagen Beetle to nail the shot. "There were three elements that Mike wanted in the photo," he later remarked, "a natural kind of glint in his eyes reflected in the rearview mirror, the speedometer pinned exactly at 55mph, and, of course, the San Pedro sign guiding us home."
17. X - Los Angeles
17. Los Angeles
Artist: X
Year released: 1980
Part of the punk tradition has to do with disrupting well-established symbols. X took a well-established image—a burning cross—and simply turned it sideways, creating something haunting, referential, and fantastically deconstructive. Simple, stark, and terrifying, Los Angeles spoke volumes with very little design.
16. Black Flag - Police Story
16. Police Story
Artist: Black Flag
Year released: 1981
Noted illustrator Raymond Pettibone handled much of the Black Flag discography, as well as album covers from bands like Sonic Youth. But it's this artwork promoting the "Police Story" single that sticks in the mind of many Black Flag fans. Offensive, violent, and anti-fascist (with a healthy dose of humor), Pettibone's artworks were as integral to Black Flag as their ever-revolving lineup. He signed this piece with a pseudonuym.
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15. Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
15. Never Mind The Bollocks
Artist: Sex Pistols
Year released: 1977
The Sex Pistols created an uproar with this album, simply for using the word "Bollocks" (a common British slang term for testicles). Getting banned from a number of shops for just their title speaks to how powerful this cut-up album cover is. Iconic for its design (or lack of it), Never Mind the Bollocks has been emulated countless times.
14. Descendents - Milo Goes to College
14. Milo Goes To College
Artist: Descendents
Year released: 1982
The bespectacled, studious Descendents frontman Milo Aukerman was often described as the class nerd, a notion reflected by the numerous egg-headed portraits drawn of him. Illustrator Jeff Atkinson handled the drawing for this release, an image that became emblematic for the band and recognizable throughout many spheres of culture.
13. Gang of Four - To Hell With Poverty
13. To Hell With Poverty
Artist: Gang of Four
Year released: 1981
Gang of Four wasn't as a brutal as some of their contemporaries, but the cheeky approach to their art didn't leave listeners with any lesser sense of meaning. This hyper-stylized single cover for "To Hell With Poverty" is an excellent example of this; it's at once critical and accessible.
12. Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
12. Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
Artist: Discharge
Year released: 1982
Discharge were a British cult favorite known for simply getting to the point of the matter. Disgusted with the political situation they saw around them in the early '80s in Britain, they released this album with a cover image as stark, brutal, and minimal as their tunes.
11. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
11. Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Artist: Dead Kennedys
Year released: 1980
Never ones for subtlety, Dead Kennedys chose an image of police cars burning, a photograph taken during the May 1979 White Night Riots in San Francisco, for their debut album. The riots were in response to the lack of heavy punishment after City Supervisor Dan White was convicted for the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, setting a political precedent that went along with the music perfectly.
10. Le Shok - We Are Electrocution
10. We Are Electrocution
Artist: Le Shok
Year released: 2000
Cartoonish, brash, and base, Le Shok sought out to disrupt the emo scene around them, starting with this legendary album cover. The band's only album was at once graphic, offensive, and hilarious, much like the band itself.
9. MDC - MDC
9. MDC
Artist: MDC
Year released: 1982
Carlos Lowry designed this cover for radical San Francisco punks MDC's debut, based on a mural by Raul Valdez in Austin, TX. Though MDC was a ferocious presence, they were also quite thoughtful in their approach, which extended to their album arts, seen in this anti-facist image that somehow recalls the populism of Warhol and the style of Lichtenstein.
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8. Converge/Hellchild - Deeper The Wound
8. Deeper The Wound
Artist: Converge/Hellchild
Year released: 2001
Converge frontman Jacob Bannon is fairly well-known for his work in graphic design, having navigated a successful career in that field, in addition to his music. This Converge split with Hellchild was one of the few releases he didn't lay a pen to; noted illustrator Derek Hess took on the project for the cover. And while Hess, too, designed a significant amount of work for bands in the early 2000s, it's the combination of these devastating bands and his notorious sketchy style that lends to something incredibly artful and sinister.
7. Minor Threat - Minor Threat
7. Minor Threat
Artist: Minor Threat
Year released: 1981
Without doubt one of the hallmark images of American hardcore, Minor Threat used this photo of Alec MacKaye, singer Ian's younger brother. It's been echoed again and again, from the cover of Rancid's ...and Out Come The Wolves to a Nike ad campaign that ended in a lawsuit from the band. No other album cover of the movement offered such stark imagery, while being so poignant.
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6. Joy Division - Unkown Pleasures
6. Unkown Pleasures
Artist: Joy Division
Year released: 1979
This album might be better classified as post-punk, but its abutment to the punk movement, as well as the two-tone design by Peter Saville, cannot go without mentioning. Even casual music fans recognize these incredibly iconic lines, a data visualization of energy emitted from the first pulsar studied by scientists. The Unknown Pleasures cover has inspired as much fan fervor as it has parody.
5. Ramones - Ramones
5. Ramones
Artist: Ramones
Year released: 1976
The Ramones originally wanted to recast a Beatles album cover for their debut, but the label wasn't having it. Their second attempt with photographer Roberta Bayley yielded this cover—the classic band pose, totally disaffected and totally cool. It's inimitable, if only for the sheer attitude that the Queens boys pass off.
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4. Green Day - Dookie
4. Dookie
Artist: Green Day
Year released: 1994
A veritable pop-punk Where's Waldo, Green Day's Dookie became an iconic cover purely based on the countless hours of examination the cover offered. An illustration by Bay Area artist Richie Bucher, the Dookie cover is a who's who of the San Francisco scene and the cultural touchstones the band walked over, including Black Sabbath and Angus Young. It's clean, chaotic, and instantly recognizable.
3. The Slits - Cut
3. Cut
Artist: The Slits
Year released: 1979
Known for sneering as much as singing, The Slits' debut album artwork has a very similar sentiment. It's recognized as much for the image on the cover as the punk-dub sounds inside. Getting naked, slathering yourself with mud, and putting that on the cover of your record certainly speaks volumes of how you think of your artwork. To do this in 1979 was just plain bold—it's become an underground icon.
2. Crass - Nagasaki Nightmare
2. Nagasaki Nightmare
Artist: Crass
Year released: 1980
Painter Gee Vaucher worked with English anarcho-punk band Crass for artwork on their releases, creating scenes so vivid and real that people believed them to be photomontages. Her work is seen as instrumental in the protest art of the '80s, even outside of the band. But her work with Crass is her best known. This cover for the Nagasaki Nightmare single stands out as exceptional.
1. The Clash - London Calling
1. London Calling
Artist: The Clash
Year released: 1979
Give Em Enough Rope may have been more macabre, but nothing disrupted the culture quite like London Calling. This is arguably one of the most iconic images in rock 'n' roll history. Based on the layout and design of Elvis Presley's debut record, it shows bassist Simonon smashing his Fender P-bass into the stage of The Palladium in 1979, a moment captured by photographer Pennie Smith. From tattoos to T-shirts, the cover of London Calling can be seen everywhere.